Course leader presentation: Salla Toppinen-Tanner

From Age Management to Life Course Management, 27th – 29th of August 2019, Kurhotel Skodsborg, Skodsborg, Denmark

Presentation of Salla Toppinen-Tanner, PhD, Head of program, FIOH, Finland

I’m currently the head of Program ‘Working Career’, a unit which focuses on life course management research and services. My own background is in work psychology, and I’ve had a long career in activities related to research and development of different aspects of well-being at work at FIOH. During the last few years I’ve mostly been involved in intervention studies and product development in the topics of balancing work and life and promoting work ability and life-long learning during mid-career. My passion is to build bridges between research and practice, and I feel very lucky to work at FIOH because it provides a perfect opportunity to do that and to promote evidence-based practice.

Why do you think that From Age Management to Life-course Management is an important and current issue to discuss in 2019?

Due to rapid changes in demography (i.e. aging) and technological development we need a change in our mindset and in the way service systems work to move from age-segregated into age-integrated working life. This means that we need to think about learning, work and leisure/family as continuous, simultaneous processes during the work life course and build a completely new way of thinking and supporting careers in a sustainable way. More emphasis is placed on individual and his/her resources for coping with continuous changes and the ability to set goals and strive for them while providing support for the individuals to do that especially during career transitions.

What do you want to say to the participants of the course?

I’m really looking forward to meeting all the participants from different countries to learn about their experiences and to hear about different ways of handling the modern career challenges during life-course. We have many excellent lecturers from different parts of Europe who will give their expertise on different phases of careers. Hopefully we will have a very active and open discussion, and the possibility to learn from each other and together find new and innovative ideas for the future!

More information: Course web page

Registration: Course registration

Last registration date: 16th of June 2019